This invention pertains to a drag conveyer using flighting in a trough for the conveyance of particulate or comminuted material, and more particularly to such a conveyor in which the vibration is greatly reduced by use of novel means for connecting the flighting and transmitting motion to that flighting.
Drag conveyors for conveying such materials as crushed rock, gravel as well as farm produced grains are well known. Nearly all such conveyors use transverse flighting bars connected together by chains at each edge. The chains run over sprockets which are driven and thus pull the chain. This type of construction almost requires that one set of flighting be displaced vertically from the return, thus eliminating any use of side by side troughs, or orientations than a straight line.
Cable-pulled flighting has been proposed. However, the drive sprockets for such a conveyor must also be notched to provide for reasonably smooth pulling so that the points of connection of flighting to the pulling cable do not interfere with the periphery of the pulley or sprocket. Thus, the spacing of the flighting on the cable must be an aliquot part of the circumference of the pulley.
In either of the former devices, vibration is common. Particularly in the chain-pulled conveyor, the flighting is constantly vibrated by meshing of the chains with the sprockets. The same type of vibrations are set up in the cable-pulled device because of the passage of the attachments into and out of slots in the rim of the cable for the pulley. These vibrations cause a jerkiness in the pulling of the flighting which can be detrimental where the material being moved is a fragile material such as grain. There is a tendency for fragile products to wedge under the flighting and be cracked or ground as the vibrations cause the flighting to bounce on the trough.
By my invention I provide a conveyor free of troublesome vibration induced by problems of meshing. My conveyor can use any spacing of flights without concern for meshing with any sprockets or cut-out rims of pulleys. Thus, there is no need for exact spacing of the blades of this flighting nor for unnecessary care in placing the assembled blades and pulley mechanism in the trough and engaging the pulley which drive the conveyor.
Also, by my invention I provide a smooth running conveyor which can be used to move materials in other than a straight line, but rather can be used in non-linear paths on a substantially horizontal plane.